Social Leverage Letter | Issue #46

Companies are scared of making bad hires, but as a result they have designed bloated, bureaucratic hiring processes. The treatment has become worse than the disease. Companies can strip waste from their assessment process by reducing the number of interviews, replace consensus hiring by giving one hiring manager decision rights, asking interviewers to give numerical ratings rather than impressionistic assessments, and change your culture to reward those who spot great hires as opposed to penalizing the occasional mistake. Changing your company’s consensus-oriented hiring culture will not be easy. But the steps listed above can help you gain an edge in your industry by hiring highly productive employees that are overlooked by your competitors.

Specialization isn’t always a good thing. Photo from 1951 assembly line. Are the days of Da Vinci dead? Is it possible to, at once, be a world-class painter, engineer, scientist, and more? &#…

A look inside Bowery Farming’s Nottingham, Maryland facility, the company’s third location.

Listen to this episode from Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy on Spotify. My guest today is Alice Bentinck, co-founder of Entrepreneur First. Entrepreneur First, or EF, invests pre-company by systematizing the way that talented individuals find co-founders, develop ideas, and scale into companies. They’re an incubator of teams and ideas on a mission to create impactful companies that, without their help, wouldn’t exist. I first spoke with Alice’s co-founder, Matt Clifford, over two years ago and have been fascinated with EF’s model of investing ever since. Please enjoy my conversation with Alice Bentinck.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.   -----   This episode is brought to you by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you're a professional equity investor and haven't talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/Patrick.    -----   Today's episode is brought to you by Brex. Brex is the integrated financial platform trusted by the world's most innovative entrepreneurs and fastest-growing companies. With Brex, you can move money fast for instant impact with high-limit corporate cards, payments, venture debt, and spend management software all in one place. Ready to accelerate your business? Learn more at brex.com/best.   -----   Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.    Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:02:33] - [First question] - Overview of what Entrepreneur First is today [00:05:57] - How she identifies the people to bring into each cohort and convince them to quit their job to join EF for eight weeks [00:10:10] - Categories of the main types of people who join the EF program [00:12:32] - What she’s learned about negative screening at the first stage of recruits  [00:14:07] - Positive signals she looks for in early admissions  [00:17:46] - What the program itself feels like as a participant [00:21:29] - Reasons partners tend to fail and whether or not EF advises equity splits between founders [00:24:49] - How important the idea is that the team will be working on  [00:28:04] - Exercises she enjoys doing with the new cohorts around social norms [00:30:38] - How the experience looks physically in each city  [00:32:57] - Categories of data collected as the cohorts unfold and making investment decisions [00:36:46] - Ways the companies mature after EF and what kinds of investors fund the next stage of their startups [00:40:55] - Why aren’t there ten EF style initiatives or organizations [00:44:26] - Motivations for the change in their holding company structure [00:46:48] - The love of product and ideas she’s playing with right now [00:51:49] - Cities she has her eye on that EF is not a participant in today and criteria that makes a city desirable for EF [00:54:03] - A piece of software that EF could benefit from that doesn’t exist yet [00:55:30] - The keys to her harmonious relationship with her co-founder Matt  [00:59:01] - National and international impediments that directly impact company building [01:01:36] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for her

Who We Are - MANSCAPED™ is a fast-growing consumer lifestyle brand specializing in men’s grooming and personal care products. On a mission to help men level up, MANSCAPED™ designs and distributes premium tools, formulations and accessories that introduce a whole new self-care routine for men. MANSCAPED™ operates as a truly global omni-channel company, currently available in 38 countries worldwide and counting. With growth like this, we are adding to almost every department at MANSCAPED™! We are a values-driven company with a keen interest in ensuring the success of every employee.Who We’re Looking For - We are looking for an up-and-coming Production Coordinator to join our growing studio team. Learn about how to run and scale organized production, with opportunity to expand your experience in marketing, advertising and an award-winning creative development.   Keys to Success - As a member of the Creative team, success will be measured based on three key actions. 1) Doing your job; setting and meeting appropriate goals that ladder up to the long-term Company vision and the short-term Company targets. You are expected to align on these goals with your manager, and then deliver on them. 2) Doing Your Job, the Right Way; At MANSCAPED™ we strive to be ideal team players. That means striving to live up to the Humble, Hard Working & Smart framework. 3) Engaging (in both directions) with Radical Candor in a way that seeks to improve the performance of yourself and the team around you.Responsibilities:Assist Producers with all facets of production, including securing talent and crew, deal memos, onboarding new vendors, production logistics and planning, payments and accountingOrder / track MANSCAPED™ product for photo and video productionsGather and input usage rights for photo and video contentWork with marketing to help organize and update our UGC content asset databaseOther duties as neededQualifications:Degree in film, marketing, communication or related field preferred Exceptional time management skills  Prior experience in film industry or media preferred Excellent verbal and written skills Organized and detailed  Comfortable with change MANSCAPED™ Benefits: 20 Vacation Days 40 Hours Paid Sick Leave Paid Mental Health Days 9 Paid Holidays Life AD&D + LTD Coverage Medical, Dental, Vision, HSA + FSA Employee 401(K) Plan Monthly Utility Allowance Employee Discounts 

ProducePay is looking for an Account Executive to help us grow our Marketplace with Mexico Buyers of fresh produce. In this role, your primary focus will be to recruit, onboard, and manage the relationship with customers, fundamentally changing how the...

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